A rare George III silver, gilt and paste-set musical automaton table clock, James Cox, London, circa 1780
Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
2¼-inch enamel dial signed James Cox London, with paste-set bezel and mounted within a painted rural scene with automaton figures and animals passing between two trees, the three train chain fusee movement with verge escapement, trip repeat striking on a bell, playing one of four tunes at the hour or on demand on a nest of eight bells and running the automaton features, the ornate case surmounted by an automaton simulated water feature above dragons and a dome with a pierced and engraved frieze depicting instruments of science, the waisted body with canted corners, the front and rear with heraldic depictions of King George III and Queen Charlotte, the moulded base on elephant feet, the whole set with coloured pastes, pierced trophy mounts and urn finials
Height 15in.; Haut. 38cm
Acquired from John Carlton-Smith, London, 1989.
Ian White, English Clocks for the Eastern Markets, AHS, 2012, pp.219-221, fig.8.8.
James Cox, 1723-1800, was apprenticed in 1738 to Humphrey Pugh, a goldsmith and toyman in Fleet Street, London, and became Free in 1745 as a goldsmith. Almost immediately he went into business on his own account producing extravagant objects with musical and automata complications. He quickly established a trade with the Far East but the business failed in 1758 and he was made bankrupt. However, Cox was able to retain his premises in Shoe Lane and by 1763 he was building a network of craftsmen and out workers to supply more fabulous items, this time to the newly emerging Indian market. The bombé form of the case of the present clock belongs to a small group of similar clocks made in London for export during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
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